22 THE Y WERE NEW YORKERS YJ LA :. '!' \\ æ::... . J ': _ r: :, \ / _ , '6" . - .) /- ,",,-,to . )\' . " I I ;j d 11 1 -, ,'"r ' ...: ,. \. " 1(1{lj . 1 ml / ' fl." "; r-:-- .t' '''' .t r .,_ I.. _ ...__ _..... I_ W ITH a friendly but by no means conciliatory bow to the Poillon sisters and the late W. E. D. Stokes, we hazard the assertIon that the name of Anneke Jans has figured in more suits at law in this County of New York, State of New York, than that of any other member of the co.mmunity SInce its founding. Today, of course, Mrs. J., herself, is a very dim figure in a pathetically d i s tan t past, but her name still echoes in judicial cor- ridors. The "past," let it be explained, is not her own. She was neither a collector for breached promises nor yet a Co.- respondent. She was just a plump little Dutch widow who happened to own a farm. The Gothic finger of Trinity Church now points skyward where the farm once stood and that fact has prompted all the lawing. It is a valu- able property hemmed in by many skyscratchers. And many a far re- moved descendant has derived momen- tary pleasure in picturing it still as Anneke Jans's farm. Anneke-the name means "Little Annie"-was dead and dust befo.re it all began. She doesn't seem to have been a breath-taking personality, any- way. She came over from Holland in 1630 with her husband, Roeloff Jans, who had been engaged to man- age the Rensselaerwyck farm of Adrian Van Rensselaer at the blush- ingly modest salary of $72 a year, or guilders to that effect. They came to. New Amsterdam four years later when Governo.r Van Twiller deeded to Jans the sixty-two- acre farm which later caused the scramble. J ans died, and so did Dominie Everardus Bogardus, the village preacher, whom she took as a second husband. But she kept the farm even after the British took over the city. When she marched on in 1663, she stipulated in her will that it be sold and the proceeds divided among her eight children. In 1671 the sale was made, with Governor Lovelace, representing the colony, the purchaser. The deal was not contested at the time, nc>r was !r ÑEsr (. . ; i \ \ \ \ L there any protest when, in 1 705, Queen Anne turned the farm over to the church with a majestically gener- ous sweep of her hand. Forty years later the fun began. A descendant of Cor- nelius Bogardus, a son of Anneke, brought forth the claim that he ( Corneli us ) had never consented to the sale. As a mat- ter of fact Connie was dead when the deal was closed. But the legal procession had started. And on it went. There were suits in 1752, 1760, 1784, 1807, 1830, 1834, 1856 and 1863. And always the court decisions were the same-in fa- vor of Trinity Church. Meanwhile those alert and wily souls, the confidence men, took up the project in a serious way. Their scheme was to promote spurious suits and collect fees in advance from prospective litigants. When you know that as long ago as 1870 a genealogist estimated there were so many descend- ants each would have received only "a few shillings" from the property had it been retrieved and sold, you may estimate the wealth that beck- oned to suave swindlers. Even today the game is occasionally revived. But Trinity Church still points its Gothic finger to Heaven, where, in all probability, the de- scendants of Anneke Jans will get whatever reward is duly theirs. . ii i ' " II . f b A MONG the many New Yorkers who have been hanged by the neck until dead, none, perhaps, left a more enduring name than Captain William Kidd. It was as long ago as 1701 that he passed from the picture, but to this very day his wraith remains as something with which to create in- feriority complexes in children. Thus have the fates dealt unkindly with the captain for recent re-examinations of the evidence indicate he was little nlore than the victim of a slightly dis- tasteful political squabble in which one neck had to serve for many. But this is not to be his vindication. It is no more than a reminder of the fact that he once was no mean citizen of our city. William Kidd was born in API\IL 2.. 19 2. 7 Greenock, Scotland, in 1661, and shipped aboard a sailing vessel as a very young man. He worked his way up rapidly and, when he had achieved a captaincy in a packet line whose ships plied between New York and London, he chose New York as his home port and settled down. Such records as there are of those early days show him as a middling handsome, not the least swashbuckling, gentleman- no rougher than a ship's captain had to be in those days to get a day's work out of the grog-soaked boys who went to sea. In 1691 he married Mrs. Sarah Oort, a rich and attractive widow. She was the daughter of Captain Samuel Bradley, a mariner, and she had been married twice before. Her first husband was William Cox, alder- man of the "out" ward and a flour merchant of wealth. He was drowned in the Raritan River on his way back f rom carrying, to the residents of the Jerseys, the news of the accession of William and Mary. Her second hus- band was John Oort, whose trade was the sea. Thus she inherited three estates and took them as a considerable dowry to Captain Kidd. Mr. Cox's property, extensive and valuable, he had left in equal parts to his widow and her brother, giving her the choice of sev- eral houses for her residence. She chose a handsome mansion at Pearl and Hanover streets, the site of which is now 119-121 Pearl Street. ' rhen it was a spacious place with lawns that ran down to the river. Into this showplace-and it was the envy of many-moved Captain Kidd. An inventory published at the time in- dicates its luxury. Among its contents are listed: "a carpet of Turkey work, the first Imported into the province, twelve Turkey-worked chairs, four looking-glasses, four feather-beds, f our bedsteads, ten blankets, one coat- of-arms, 104 ounces of silver plate, three barrels of picked cider and a negro woman." They also had a country place in Harlem, about where East Seventy-fourth Street runs down to the river now. The captain carne into other prop- erty, as well. The very spot in which the offices of no less a person than Otto Kahn now stand in the building of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., 25-27-29 Pine Street, was his. There was a house, too, at 56 Wall Street, and lots at 86-90 Pearl Street and 52-56 Water